In the modern world, which is based on information, there is a lot of content out there. Including a lot of content about content. Successful content marketers have to strategize, produce, promote and manage their own content, as well as the content of their clients. They also need to consume content on a regular basis. Not to get lost in the flow of information, they need focus.

So where can you find out more about this increasingly tricky science to access increasingly savvy consumers?

We’ve put together the Top 10 free Content Marketing Resources to help you out.

1. Content Marketing Institute (СMI)

This is the go-to resource for all things content marketing from one of the most respected authorities in the industry. The Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multi-channel storytelling. Here you can find some free articles and researches in the sphere of content marketing.

The plus of this resource is that is updated daily, offers expert insights on developing your content strategy and tailoring its execution to meet the needs of your business. The minus is that some materials are not free and you need to subscribe.

2. Google Online Marketing Challenge

Google offers a free and very thorough online marketing course, complete with a Pre-Course Preparation and Course Packs to go along with each lesson. With Google being arguably the largest search engine out there, this is definitely a must for everyone planning on doing their own online marketing, and it’s a great place to start as a beginner.

For more-or-less experienced marketers, this resource is not so interesting.

3. Copyblogger

The blog of content marketing masters is the perfect mix of educational and inspiring without being intimidating. Copyblogger started as a simple one-man blog. Today it is known as Rainmaker Digital — a digital commerce company with more than 200,000 unique customers — and it has grown using useful content, smart copywriting, and exceptional products and services without any advertising.

You can register for your free Copyblogger account to access the proven marketing training library. The downside is that you need registration, but you don’t have to pay for it. Even without registering, you have access to its blog, which includes content marketing advice, as well as writing and productivity tips.

4. Convince & Convert

Convince & Convert was founded by Jay Baer in 2008. Jay has advised more than 700 brands since getting started in online marketing in 1993. In addition to strategy consulting, the firm also runs Convince & Convert Media, a fast-growing education company that produces six podcasts, a digital magazine, email, webinars, and white papers.

You can listen to content pros podcast for free and find some more useful materials on the subject.
The drawback is that you need to subscribe and pay money for some advanced researches.

5. Hubspot blog

Hubspot delivers a well-rounded blog with a slight emphasis on the more technical side of inbound marketing. Here you can find a marketing library.

The downside is the emphasis on the technical side of the question, although the resource is quite suitable, if you need such information.

6. Top Rank’s Online Marketing Blog

Since its founding in 2003, this blog has received numerous accolades for its insights and analysis of content marketing, SEO, business blogging and other digital marketing concepts.
You’ll need to subscribe to receive access to advanced materials, but the procedure is not that hard and is free.

7. Business 2 Community

A rich source of information features infographics, blog posts and other resources related to every facet of content marketing. Check out the “content marketing” tag under the Business tab, or meander through the other sections of the site to enhance your knowledge of social media marketing strategies, advertising trends and industry news.

This resource is dedicated not only to content marketing, so you will have to spend time to find relevant information on the issue.

8. ProBlogger

ProBlogger offers tips on writing, organizing ideas and building a better overall blog, which is a key channel for content marketing. The minus is that you’ll need to subscribe — not all the information is freely available.

9. The Craft of Marketing

The Craft of Marketing is both a weekly blog series and a podcast bringing you actionable marketing tips, hacks, and strategies from some of the world’s leading marketers.

Here you can receive your own free branding guide. You’ll have to subscribe, but they claim that they are not spam.

10. Entrepreneur online magazine

Entrepreneur online magazine covers more than just online marketing, of course, but the posts within their online marketing category have some excellent information for beginners to intermediates. You’ll even see some web design-based marketing articles, inspirational marketing articles, and branding-type articles.
The material is diverse, but not very specialized and quite superficial.

Unlocking the Power of Free Resources for Content Marketing

The availability of free online resources for content marketing has made it easier than ever for businesses to create engaging and effective content. There is a variety of platforms and tools to help marketers create, distribute, and analyze their content. By utilizing these resources for content marketing, businesses can improve their strategies and ultimately achieve their goals. Whether it’s finding inspiration for new content ideas, creating eye-catching graphics, or analyzing performance metrics, the abundance of free content marketing materials online makes it possible for businesses of all sizes to create professional-quality content and compete in their industries.

Discover more

Have you picked your favorite online resource for content marketing?
If that’s a yes, save and complement this guide with these tips to help small businesses utilize mobile marketing.
And check out our out-of-this-world fast, mobile, and budget-friendly phone system for small business. We’ll help your team talk anytime, anywhere, and about anything, at a stunning price.

The post Must Read Content Marketing Resources for Enthusiast Creators first appeared on MightyCall.

Whether it’s a live chat program that reaches out to your website visitors automatically, or a CRM that helps you track and manage leads across multiple channels, automation tools can benefit your business in many ways. So, to give you a better understanding of marketing automation products, here’s a list of the top ten ways using such tools can help your business.

Increased Productivity

Modern marketing methods are all about enabling your business to do more with less. By automating some or many of your marketing tasks, you allow your staff members to do other things that may require more time or attention. Of course, sending out emails, posting to social media and other mundane marketing tasks are important. Still, since many marketing automation products can handle those tasks for you, they free up a ton of time for your marketers. Which in turn, makes your whole marketing team, and strategy, more productive.

Fewer Missed Posts and Human Errors

It’s been proven time and again that posting regularly to your blog and social media accounts encourages more engagement and interaction from customers (and potential customers.) Therefore, creating regular posting schedules is a great way to keep your campaigns active and consistent. Marketing automation always remembers to post to your social accounts on time. So, as long as you use the marketing automation software to schedule posts in advance, you’ll never have to worry about staff members getting too busy and forgetting to interact with your social media or blog followers.

Reduced Marketing Costs

Marketing automation can help save your business money in a number of ways. However, perhaps the biggest money-saving feature that automation offers is the fact that one person can wear many marketing hats when using the software. Of course, not all automation products are created equal; but the good ones allow a single person to schedule, follow, reply and do many other marketing tasks from a single interface. This allows your marketing team to employ fewer members while still being able to remain productive and efficient. For many smaller companies, being able to do more with fewer marketing team members can be the difference between losing money and generating a profit.

More Efficient Lead Management and Nurturing

Depending on the field or industry you’re in, solid sales leads can be difficult to come by. Therefore, once you do have qualified leads, it’s important to do everything possible to convert them into paying customers. This is where lead management and nurturing comes into play.

Once a potential customer shows interest in your product or service, you have to keep him/her interested. This means managing leads effectively and nurturing them to the point they are ready to buy from you. Fortunately, this an area where marketing automation excels. When you use automation, you’ll no longer have to worry if follow-up emails or messages are sent on time. Automated sending processes let you concentrate more on your nurturing strategy and less on having to remember when to actually send follow-up messages.

Decreased Lead Conversion Times

The period between when a person first expresses an interest in your product or service and when he/she actually makes a purchase and becomes a customer is what is known as the “lead conversion time.” Of course, the shorter the lead conversion time, the better it is for your company. One of the biggest benefits companies notice about marketing automation is just how much faster it helps them convert leads into paying customers. The consistent nature of tasks enabled with marketing automation helps show customers that you care enough to follow up and find ways to answer questions or concerns they may have about your products and services. In turn, consistent follow-ups lead to higher and faster conversions.

Better Customer Relationships and Retention

Many marketing automation products make it easy to stay in touch with your customers (and future customers) on social media. Good automated marketing products with a social media focus not only enable auto-posting but also notify you when comments or reactions are recorded on your social networking accounts.

Quick notifications about social media comments enable your team to respond quickly to any questions, complaints, concerns or suggestions your customers may have about your products or services. Quick and efficient interaction with customers on your social media accounts builds trust and respect, which leads to better customer relationships and higher retention rates. Simply put, if your customers know you’re always there to answer their questions and concerns, they’ll remain loyal and also encourage their friends or relatives to try your company as well.

Easier Prospect Targeting Across Omni-Channels

Until recently, if you wanted to engage with and target leads or prospects across multiple channels, such as email, social media, SMS and phone calls, you had to have several people using several different marketing applications to do it effectively. With newer marketing automation products, though, fewer team members are required to reach out across all channels simultaneously or at scheduled intervals, you can define yourself.

Better engagement and outreach across Omni-channels not only increases productivity and reduces costs, but also helps reduce spamming and prevents duplicate efforts and confusion among your marketing team members. Being able to automate outreach across multiple channels frees up your team to concentrate more on the message you want to send instead of spending too much time sending emails and messages with more conventional methods.

Faster, Better Analysis of Marketing Strategies

Determining whether a marketing campaign or strategy is actually working or not requires quality analysis of measurable results, or in a word — reporting. Marketing reports are nothing new of course, and virtually all good applications have always offered them in one form or another.

The thing that makes reporting with newer marketing automation platforms better, though, is that they usually allow you to monitor and track metrics and progress across multiple channels instead of just one. Knowing and understanding how your customers and prospects are reacting to and engaging with posts, messages, videos and other content is essential to tweaking your marketing campaigns and strategies to make them more effective. With better automation applications, generating this type of insightful reporting is quick and easy to understand.

Increased Upsell and Cross-Sell Opportunities

In many cases, customers will buy higher-end (and more expensive) versions of your products or add-ons if they only know they exist and are available.

However, informing customers of upgrades or add-ons manually is usually very time-consuming and may not be cost-effective in the end. With better CRM or e-commerce marketing automation applications, though, following up with emails or social media posts that offer upsell and cross-sell products is quick and relatively straightforward. Upselling and cross-selling not improves profit margins, but also makes your customers happier and more appreciative of more suitable products and upgrades.

Increased Revenues

The ultimate goal of any business should be to turn a profit. Therefore, the single biggest reason to use marketing automation is that it helps you increase revenues. Marketing automation software can be expensive in some cases.

Nevertheless, most companies that use such software report impressive returns on investment. Whether it be from saving you money by allowing you to use fewer resources, or increasing sales with upselling and cross-selling opportunities, marketing automation helps you reduce costs and increase sales at the same time.

Last Word About Advantages of Marketing Automation:

There are numerous free online resources available for content marketers that can help improve their strategies and ultimately achieve their business goals. However, to fully realize the potential benefits of using these resources, it’s key to consider the importance of marketing automation. By automating certain tasks and processes, content marketers can save time, streamline workflows, and improve the overall efficiency of their campaigns. The benefits of marketing automation are numerous, and utilizing these tools can help content marketers achieve even greater success in their efforts.

The post 10 Ways Marketing Automation Benefit Your Business first appeared on MightyCall.

In this article we cover:

• Business Cards as a Marketing Tool: Why We Still Use Business Cards
• Design: How to Make Your Card Design Effective
• Content: What Information to Put on a Business Card
• Keep in Touch: Why You Should Consider Getting a Business Phone Number
• Business Card Marketing Your Way

Business Cards as a Marketing Tool

A masterfully-designed business card introduces your company to potential clients, serving as an effective yet subtle marketing tool. Business cards are:

• Handy. It’s much easier to slip a card into your wallet/pocket than reaching for a phone to record someone’s contacts. In contrast to writing down a phone number on a scrap of paper, it is possible to supply more information in a casual, non-intrusive manner.
• Professional. It is rather challenging to provide sufficient information with good visual design, readability, and distinctive style within the limited space of a card. Your ability to do it implies attention to detail ― a key property of professionalism. It can also demonstrate that your business is successful: having high quality of design and paper will show your clients that you can afford it.
• Personal. By giving a business card you show respect by relieving a recipient of additional actions like typing your contact into the phone or writing it down. It also saves time, and people appreciate your care. In contrast to digital tools, being a physical object allows to support the visuals with tactile sensations. Such sensations are not only perceived as more personal, but help to remember the printed information (company name, logo, list of services, etc.).
• Expressive. Creative professionals such as designers, photographers, illustrators, or artists can showcase their skills directly. This way, you can provide a sneak peek and interest your client in your art style. They can also communicate the lifestyle and values your business is about.
• Fun. There are custom cards that, if used wisely, can become a powerful tool to engage the card recipient with your product. Some furniture companies make their business cards foldable, inviting the customer to make a small origami chair or table by following an easy instruction. Mini cheese grater business cards, a beer bottle opener business card, an envelope with seeds—all these options are genious approaches to marketing with business cards.

However, the problem with business cards is that virtually everyone nowadays distributes them as a part of business etiquette. As a result, cardholders of businesslike people are filled with tons of largely similar cards. Luckily, there is a way to get around this challenge.

With the help of the following tips on design and content you will learn to utilize the creative approach without compromising the air of trustworthiness.

Design

Color Matters

Color is the first thing we notice about a business card. Making your recognizable grants obvious promotional advantages and also saves a would-be client’s effort while flipping through his/her cardholder in search for your contacts. Just be reasonable.

A dissonant “eye-watering” palette is off-putting. An irritated person will hardly bother looking at your card twice. What we find pleasing is harmony, although this notion may appear subjective. That is exactly why artists came up with a color wheel. It may be confusing for the first time you see it, so a little read-up is recommended. Such websites as Tigercolor or Colormatters provide several ways to use a color wheel along with some basic theory behind the color harmony.

When the palette is chosen, try to test it before calling a print service. Don’t hesitate to ask your friends whether they find your color choice pleasing. You can get more global and unbiased feedback at ColourLovers ― an internet community of color enthusiasts where they create, share and discuss color schemes. Palette is yet another way of identification, so keep your color schemes consistent through your website, business cards and promotional materials

Balance the Oddity

Ferrari red paint, a huge spoiler, and predatory air intakes look great on a sports car, much less so on a family minivan. Ensure that your card design is appropriate for the field of your business activities.

Originally, contacts were printed in black on plain white paper. Many legal and financial businesses still adhere to this template or opt for its derivatives ― shades of pale gray or beige. Such cards look basically the same for a reason: along with inscriptions like “Est. 1876” they convey traditionalism and seriousness. Would you choose a legal advisor whose business card implies nonconformity? Similarly, would you choose a children’s art studio with a black-on-gray card? Hardly so, unless the intention is to make a clear statement of “otherness” ― quite a risky move, indeed.

Color schemes may vary greatly as far as they are appropriate and harmonious. On the other hand, the following aspects of design are universally applicable.

Preserve Functionality

Make your text legible. The primary function of a business card is to convey information ― you don’t want potential customers to struggle through overcomplicated fanciful lettering. Nor do you want them to use a magnifying glass if their eyesight isn’t perfect.

As far as fonts are concerned, they also should be appropriate. There are hundreds of internet sites solely dedicated to fonts. For instance, on Printaholic.com you may find a wide choice of typefaces recommended for use in particular business fields while Indesignskills.com ― among other things ― contains tutorials and tips on the matter.

Materials and Shapes

Choose quality materials only. A momentary impulse to save a couple of dollars on paper may severely affect your business reputation. Whatever excellent design you have, people will likely dispose of a wrinkled piece of cheap cardboard with low-res print. 90% of all business cards are printed on high-density matte paper because this material is inexpensive, print-friendly and undemanding in terms of print equipment. What is more, you can make immediate notes on matte paper, while ink won’t stick to a glossy surface.

If your business is associated with handmade products or fashion, consider using textured or embossed material. A good example is paper with linen texture ― it is still writable and looks noble while being very pleasant to touch. Unfortunately, it is difficult to maintain decent quality of print on heavily-textured surfaces, so use more conventional materials unless shabbiness is really what you want.

Bear in mind that a business card is a utilitarian item ― it may be casually stuffed into a pocket, get soiled or soaked. While only plastic coating can guarantee full protection, at least make sure the print is able to survive an occasional couple of raindrops and the paper won’t wrinkle when held in slightly sweaty hands. Give your freshly-printed cards a trial before ordering the main bulk.

As for the shape, it is better t stick to standard-size rectangular cards. While oval or hexagonal ones will definitely stand out, storing them in a cardholder – or a wallet – is problematic.
Before proceeding to content, let us recap the design-related tips:

• Pick an aesthetically-pleasant color scheme, ask for feedback
• Make sure your design is in line with your business field
• Select legible fonts and font sizes
• Use professional print services and high-quality materials; give them a trial

Content

Avoid Misunderstanding

Be as clear as possible. A fleeting glance at your business card should be enough to determine the general industry of your company. The name of the company and its logo are things that catch one’s eye. They must be chosen carefully. To avoid ambiguity and enhance the promotional effect, include a company slogan (brand promise). Even if you run a one-person enterprise, state your personal responsibilities clearly.

Provide essentials only. Cramming the card space with irrelevant text is bad: it affects the design and draws attention from what is important. A business card should invite a recipient to make a call/write a message, it is not intended to provide explicit details.

Show Yourself

In the late 19th century, putting an owner’s photograph on a business card was a good way to make it stand out. Now, as color printing has become cheaper, this approach is quite common for those who wish to be remembered in person (real estate agents, for instance). Arguably, a photo builds up familiarity and thus increases the number of incoming messages. What is more, people tend to remember faces better than names. However, some people are rather conservative towards business cards and a photo ― especially, a not-so-perfect one ― makes you look unprofessional in their eyes.
Anyway, it might be a good idea if you work independently ― in contrast with a company logo, a photo emphasizes the personality of a card-giver. If you opt for a photo, avoid ID mugshots ― it is not the most appealing camera angle. Instead, ask a professional photographer to make a business portrait with adequate equipment, lighting, and background. Don’t forget to don your best suit. A “creative professional” can try a self-portrait in a cartoonish or caricature manner ― such a face will surely be remembered.

Don’t Waste the Space

Corporate business cards are often blank on the reverse side. It is how companies show that they don’t use cards for promotion. It also almost halves printing costs. For a small business, however, a single-sided card seems a waste of a promotional asset. Have you ever studied how card recipients react? Out of pure curiosity they would look at the backside and ― finding nothing there ― put the card into their wallets in a slightly disappointed manner.

Now, if they find something unexpected on the reverse, you will get a smile in appreciation of your creativity. And as we know, positive emotions generate customers. A card’s reverse side may be used to provide a link to your landing page via a QR code or you can offer discounts and special offers. It is even possible to highlight some of your work, be it manicure, wedding cakes or tailored suits ― just take a photo of the best thing you’ve ever made and place it on the back of your card.

Keep in Touch

The most essential area of your business card is your contact data. In the world of today, two things are indispensable here ― an email address and a telephone number. Additional contacts may include your website, social media accounts (don’t forget to restrict access to anything private), popular messaging agents etc.

For most people phone calls remain the most natural way of communication as they prefer voice over messaging. Therefore, a phone number is compulsory. But is it a good idea to give your private mobile contact? On the one hand, exposing your private contact data makes you a potential target for pranks, spam and night calls, which doesn’t add peace to family life. On the other hand, you risk losing clients when failing to answer incoming calls (if a line is busy, or you are preoccupied with urgent matters, or trouble with your device occurs). Probably the worst possible situation is when you are forced to change your number. In this case, all the previously-issued business cards become almost useless.

Large companies combat this problem by using phone branch extension systems. For smaller businesses there is a much more affordable alternative ― a virtual phone number. Companies like MightyCall provide business phone numbers enabling you to get all the benefits of a professional PBX without any additional equipment. Such solutions are highly customizable with a wide variety of options to pick from.

If you work as a part of a team, just put a business number on your card and the system will automatically forward incoming calls to a free team member. Alternatively, you can activate an auto-receptionist to greet your clients and enable them to choose who to speak to. An independent professional can always stay in touch regardless of where he is ― calls can be forwarded to any mobile, VoIP device or softphone. And if you don’t want to be troubled during non-business hours, just set an appropriate rule and record a voice message for callers.

The Content-Related Tips Go as Follows:

• Make your text perfectly understandable. Don’t overload your card with information.
• If you want a photo, make sure it is appropriate and professional.
• Use the reverse side of a card to your advantage. Showcase your work, provide special offers or supply a link to your landing page.
• Always include your email and phone number. Social media profiles are optional, yet recommended.
• Consider getting a virtual business number. It makes life much easier.

Business Card Marketing Your Way

Creating a high-quality business card is no easy feat, but it is one that will definitely pay off. Adding a tactile connection between you and your customer will strengthen the bond between them and your company. Business cards remain an essential and handy networking instrument and a key part of business etiquette. By making your cards unique, professional-looking, and credible, you will maximize the promotional impact. Business cards represent you and your brand, which makes them a crucial investment that a smart business owner will definitely consider.

The post Business Card as the Effective Marketing Tool – 8 Things to Know first appeared on MightyCall.

However, MMS in marketing does have an unfavorable reputation as well: customers get annoyed with what feels like an intrusion into their personal lives and companies have no idea how to correctly implement the practice only to end up in their clients’ spam folder.

How do you befriend customers through the channel of interactive messages? What purposes does multimedia messaging address and how do you get started? We talked to marketing and entrepreneurial experts to find out how MMS marketing works and a lot more.

What Is MMS Marketing?

MMS marketing is commercial multimedia messaging between a company and its clients. Whenever a customer receives an image, video, link, or other multimedia content from a business as a message to their mobile phone, that’s an example of a company employing MMS advertising services. Companies may send commercial messages to clients manually or in bulk through automation tools.

The Difference Between MMS and SMS

Let’s start with a clear definition of what exactly an MMS message is, how it’s different from SMS, and the types of files it allows you to send.

• SMS (Short Message Service) is any message, whether personal or professional, sent in plain text format. In everyday life, it’s the “casual” messaging format we most frequently use when communicating with family and friends. These messages have a limit of up to 160 characters. When sent over a mobile network, this is the cheapest messaging option.
• MMS(Multimedia Messaging Service) is a format we tend to think of when sending images. In fact, its technical meaning is any message that includes an emoji, picture, GIF, audio, video, link, or attached files in a variety of other formats. It can also be just a really long plain text message since the service has a limit of 1000 characters and above (this varies by provider). When sent over a mobile network, picture messaging and other multimedia formats are more expensive than SMS.

How to Use MMS Marketing in Practice

Whether you plan to send occasional offers to select customers or are looking into bulk MMS marketing, here are the occasions that may warrant MMS messaging for a company of any size, and the examples of entrepreneurs who tried them.

”One of the great things about MMS marketing is that you can personalize your messages to each recipient … using their name, referencing a recent purchase, or even sending a birthday message. You can send MMS messages with purchase links to make it easy for people to buy from you… follow up with customers after a purchase, thank them for their business, and encourage them to buy again in the future.” – Chris M. Walker, founder & CEO of Legiit

1. Customer communication – Some industries, like home improvement, need to quickly evaluate a project before traveling onsite. In such cases, words alone won’t suffice to understand the particular problem. When a company has a multimedia messaging solution set up on their business number, a customer can easily send an image or short video to help the specialist evaluate the work.

2. Customer and partner appreciation – Take a moment to send a thank-you note to customers for making a purchase or return – even better, attach a little thank-you coupon to it!  Thank your professional partners and even investors before or after an important occasion for your brand. Such little gestures take just a few moments but are a heartwarming touch between partners.

3. Product guarantee issues – If you’re in an industry that deals with guarantees and product replacements, a picture is worth a thousands words. Sharing your number with customers so they can easily send an MMS is a quick and easy way to do a preliminary evaluation.

“It’s imperative to assume that your customer service staff requires a photograph of a damaged product prior to giving guaranteed replacements. In addition, they require a receipt before issuing a refund. Give your clients the option to take a short photograph on their cellphone and send it back to you to take customer service to another level.” – Christine Brownstein, Chief Marketing Officer,Palaleather 

4. Promotion/Sale – Talking about a holiday sale in words just isn’t the same as receiving a magical presentation of the sale. And don’t forget to attach purchase links to your website in the MMS, so customers can easily follow through with the purchase!

5. Mobile coupon – Do both your customers and the planet a service – conserve paper and send your coupons to customers via mobile messages. A lot to gain and no slips of paper to lose and waste.

6. Product launch – Keep your audience in the loop of an important product launch or a product update via messaging. This is especially nice if you’re dealing with a mobile product.

“We used Multimedia Message Service marketing for our product launch and it was a great success. We were able to reach a large number of people with our message and the response was overwhelmingly positive.” – Brandon Wilkes, Marketing Manager, The Big Phone Store

7. Holidays/special occasions – use your customers’ birthdays or any holiday as an occasion to send a greeting with a special promo. This will remind clients that you take them to heart!

8. Tips – Adding value is another non-intrusive format that goes down well with MMS text marketing. Some services, like those in the wedding industry, use picture messaging to send useful short styling/event tips and reminders to customers.

9. Contact sharing – Connect with each new customer in a unique way through visual content with your company credentials. This will expand your social media follower base and remind customers of the available channels to contact you.

“I send phone contact cards to my customers. It contains a business name, a number and a link to our social media profiles. This ensures that our details are saved correctly on the client’s phone.” – Rodney Warner, CEO – Connective Web Design

How Much Does an MMS Marketing Service Cost?

MMS advertising is different from commercial SMS marketing and is a standalone service that’s billed separately. Pricing generally varies based on the type of company number you send the message from and the costs charged by your telephony provider.

Generally, there are two options:

• Sending the message from long-code caller ID – if you’re wondering what this means, have no worries. Long-code caller ID is just a regular company phone number, like 1(212) 436-9478 as a local example, or 1(800) 563-4598 as a toll-free example. Long-code caller ID is the cheaper option for commercial purposes since you don’t have to get another number to send messages from. Prices range around 2-3 cents per message.
• Sending the message from short-code caller ID – You may have noticed messages from so-called short-codes – numbers that range from 5-6 digits, turning up on your phone. This is the option that large companies, banks, government and nonprofit organizations use for messaging. This is usually the pricier option since you’ll have to buy the short code number in addition to the MMS marketing service./li>

For small and mid-sized companies, mobile advertising is more cost-effective through their long-code caller ID, aka their regular company phone number. Not only is this better on the budget, but customers can see that a real local shop or service is communicating with them, not just another unknown set of digits.

VoIP services like MightyCall offer a great SMS and MMS marketing platform. For example, on all MightyCall Business plans and above, you get an unlimited multimedia messaging service that works right from your professional number (toll-free or local).

How to Start an MMS Marketing Campaign With MightyCall>

With MightyCall’s professional phone system, you can send MMS messages both from the MightyCall web profile and from the  Mobile App. Best of all, you don’t have to buy special MMS marketing software – the service is available as soon as you get a professional number or port the one you’re currently using.

To send files via the web profile:

1. Make sure that messaging is enabled in Numbers and Widgets for the company numbers you want to send messages from.
2. In your profile, open the texts thread with the customer.
3. To add a file, click on the Plus button that has Add File option.
4. Once the files are attached, it will toggle to MMS type.

To send files via the Mobile app:

1. Tap the [+] button on the main screen.
2. Enter the recipient’s number (To:), manually or from your phone address book.
3. Enter the message (if any), upload the file(s) and send the message.
4. You can also reply to your incoming Calls & Voicemails via texts.

If you prefer the customer to see your company name as Caller ID instead of your number when they receive the message, you can set up a free service we offer called CNAM. This acts as your outbound caller ID, so whenever you send a message to clients or partners, they get to remember your company.

The Benefits of Using MMS in Your Marketing Strategy

“The media can be used as a follow-up, support, or lead magnet to your main message. It allows you to customize the follow-up message to go with the lead magnet. By including media … you can create a better connection with your lead and improve conversion rates.” — Founder and Dr. of Regenerative Medicine Dr.Staci Holweger

• High open rates – Better open rates mean better click-through rates and more effective sales. Mobile messaging achieves 98% open rates effortlessly since people always prioritize messages sent to their mobile phones. Compare that to a just 20% open rate for emails, and you’ll see just how much professionals have to gain from MMS advertising.
• Reliability – When you need to get important information across to customers, messaging is a reliable way to know that your customer will read it, wherever they happen to be at the moment.
• Better Return on Investment (ROI) – compared to other advertising campaigns, MMS marketing for business provides incredible open rates, high engagement, and easy sales tools.
• Improved sharing – customers are more likely to share a visually appealing message, sales, or promo and forward it to friends through messaging apps.
• Personalized experiences – we’re in the habit of considering a message sent to a mobile phone as more personal than email. Brands can use this impact as a marketing strategy to create long-lasting emotional rapport, as long as they don’t overuse this channel of communication.

Is Business Messaging Effective?

We already talked about the amazing open rates of commercial messages that no other marketing tool can approach. But mobile MMS marketing has also surpassed its text messaging sibling: interactive and picture messaging< in a professional context show up to 300% more engagement than a plain text message.

This advertising strategy is most effective for local shops and services because that’s what friends do – they message each other with news. There’s a nice, neighborly touch in inviting your customers to stop by via a friendly message, and keeping them in the loop of attractive offers. On the other hand, national e-commerce stores and companies without a home base may come off as intrusive strangers knocking into your private space with their messaging.

Finally, don’t forget that your customer persona also matters in measuring effectiveness.

“Think about whether MMS marketing is suitable for your particular target audience. [For example], it is a great option if you’re targeting a younger demographic. However, if you’re targeting an older demographic, it may not be as effective.” – Zack “ROI” Williams ROI Marketing Firm

If you’re thinking – sure, Baby Boomers aren’t that good with technology, so they won’t open the MMS as much – it’s not just whether your audience uses technology but how they use it. Older customers get annoyed with technology a lot faster than Millenials and GenZ and prefer to keep it for family and friends rather than professional communication.

The younger generation, however, is used to conversing with companies on social media, and even buying products through apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. This means there’s a lot less chance that you’ll fall into their blacklist than your grandparents’.

Best MMS Marketing Practices

To ensure that your strategy wins customer loyalty without intruding into the private life of customers, follow the following tips before starting a campaign.

• Always ask for permission – business messaging laws require companies to offer opt-in and opt-out services. However, if you’re already using SMS marketing, you have this service set up. So you can transition to MMS marketing campaigns without additional permissions.
• Keep things nice and short – people stop reading commercial messages after the first few lines. So if you’re sending multimedia text messages, seal all the main info upfront.
• Use optimal-sized attachments – large-sized images and videos load very slowly, so optimize your files for messaging.
• Determine your main idea – what’s the main idea and keywords of your message? Keep it clear throughout the interaction.
• Include a call to action – include a CTA and don’t forget a link right below it.
• Don’t overspam – Keep it quality over quantity – one MMS marketing message a week is good enough. Bombarding your audience with even the most terrific offers daily will accelerate you to the spam folder.
• A/B test and track results – Send out different versions of your message to different groups of people and see which one performs the best. Track these results over a period of time to measure performance and adjust your campaign accordingly.

Technical Tips for Fast-Loading Multimedia Messages

Remember the last time someone sent you a video and it took forever to load? That’s because the file size was large and poorly customized for sending via mobile devices. In fact, some larger messages can take 10-15 minutes to load – and that’s definitely not something to try in your MMS marketing message!

Here are some helpful tips for when you’re stuck between quality and speed.

File recommendations

Some extra tips for sending files

Keep in mind that each MMS marketing solution provider has their own technical specifications for messages. For example, even though the character limit ranges around 1000-1600 characters, some enterprise-level providers offer up to 5000 character limits.

You’ll see the same picture in regard to formats like audio and video. You may be able to send up to 70MB of audio or video with some providers, but just below that impressive figure, you’ll read a notice that processing takes up to 10 minutes – and that’s not to mention how long the videos will load on the customer’s end, which will likely boil down to another 10 minutes.

The rule of thumb with multimedia files is simple: bigger isn’t always better. To keep everything balanced, here are a few extra tips:

• Images – to marry quality with user experience, convert your high-quality pictures into smaller formats. If you need help, try TinyPNG – a nice free tool that marketers use to compress files.
• Animated GIF – Keep your files square or trip them accordingly. Sending a gif that’s portrait or landscape-oriented will crop it in the preview, which is the first thing customers see in messages.
• Audio – Though most carriers support multiple formats, stick to mobile-first audio formats like mp3 and mp4. Wav files are higher quality, but they take up a lot of space and are poorly-suited for sending via mobile message.
• Video – Again, your provider may offer support for multiple video formats including flv, mov, etc. but fast-loading files usually stick to mp4.
• Other – large-sized PDF files, such as digital magazines, ebooks, etc. need to be compressed before sending. When sending zip files, keep in mind that the recipient won’t be able to view it on their mobile device.

Successful MMS Advertising Is Just 3 Steps Away

Developing a mobile marketing strategy may sound harder than it really is, especially for us non-tech gurus. So for the final word, let’s recap the 3 simple things you’ll need to get started with marketing MMS.

• Get a business number – all you need is a 10-digit local or toll-free number from a phone service provider that supports business MMS. We don’t suggest buying a short-code number unless you’re a big company with messages you plan to send in bulk through automation tools.
• Focus on interaction, not a marketing campaign – Use vibrant images and gripping words to create emotional content. Smaller companies without designers may use free design tools like Canva, with many out-of-the-box templates available.
• Stick to technical requirements – Always double-check file requirements with your MMS marketing service provider but as a rule of thumb, don’t forget to compress large files and consult the table above. This will ensure that your images and other files are visible to customers.

Want to learn more about professional texting? Check out our guide to business texting etiquette and complement it with MightyCall’s unlimited MMS package that you can use with both local and toll-free numbers, on any device.

The post MMS Marketing: Everything You Need to Know first appeared on MightyCall.

What would most marketers give today to rewind fifteen years and be one of those pioneering businesses who first jumped in on the social media bandwagon! The lucky ones who today have got hundreds of thousands of organic followers!

Fact: In just 3 months from December 2020 to March 2021,  Clubhouse has grown from 600,000 active weekly users to 10 million active weekly users.

With the exclusive drop-in audio chat app Clubhouse, businesses have the unprecedented chance to pioneer new social media in 2021. Want to jump in? Here’s the essential FAQ you need to know about the Clubhouse app for business purposes.

In this post:

• What is the Clubhouse app?
• Why is Clubhouse so popular?
• Can I use Clubhouse for business?
• How do I get invited to Clubhouse?

What is the Clubhouse app?

Clubhouse is currently an invite-only iOS app giving a literal “voice” to social media. A cross between social media and podcasting, Clubhouse positions itself as “drop-in audio chat” and allows users to host and join audio conversations in public spaces called “rooms”.

Once you join the Clubhouse app, you can “listen in” on all the public conversations going on at the moment (Clubhouse streams are live, and gone after they’re gone. Recording is prohibited). Based on your selected interests — anything from business to lifestyle, from arts to politics, etc. , you’ll constantly see live streams in your feed that you can join.

By raising a hand to participate, listeners can ask to become speakers and join in on the conversation. And of course, any Clubhouse member can start their own live streaming “room” anytime.

Why is Clubhouse so popular?

After the ultimate go-to move when Clubhouse invited Elon Musk for a 90-minute conversation about space exploration, education, and Neuralink and the room “exploded” with listeners beating the 5k people limit, the app has become popular with celebrities like Oprah, Mark Zuckerberg, Malcolm Gladwell regularly hosting their own conversations.

This combination of celebrity use and invite-only exclusivity is doing its magic as Clubhouse is becoming the most talked-about new social media platform.

But more than that, Clubhouse is addressing the trend for interactive social media which may very well be the future of social media platforms.

Can I use Clubhouse for business?

Although celebrities are present on Clubhouse for promotion purposes, the real  — and yet untapped — perspectives here await small businesses — especially those in B2B —  which can use the platform to do online networking, connect to customers and partners, and grow their brand.

As famed marketing expert Neil Patel  says, “What draws me to the Clubhouse app is the potential to build an engaged community and grow your sphere of influence. You can also …engage with other entrepreneurs and influencers to develop invaluable business relationships in a new format.”

For small businesses in B2B, Clubhouse is a platform with a lot of potential. To tap into it, you’ve got to be the first to jump in on the opportunity and gain followers organically, while the app isn’t flooded with users and promoted businesses.

Businesses that can use Clubhouse include:

• B2B businesses
• Marketing, PR, and media businesses
• Educational businesses (online courses, online education, workshops, etc.)
• E-commerce (conversations about trends, industry, interviews)
• Arts and crafts (workshops, interviews)
• Bloggers (interviews, trends, reviews, etc.)

How do I get invited to Clubhouse?

To get invited to Clubhouse, you must own an iPhone and know someone who is willing to invite you to the Clubhouse app (don’t confuse Clubhouse with Clubhouse.io, the project management app.)

Current Clubhouse users can hand only two invites, so reach out within your close network to find connections. There are also services selling Clubhouse invites, but it’s a murky business where you can easily fall prey to scammers.

Summary

If you’re a small business and you have a contact willing to drop you a Clubhouse invite, don’t think twice  — just do it. Invest your time into this platform today to reap the benefits tomorrow. Remember that just like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in their early days, Clubhouse is offering businesses carte blanche for organic outreach.

With Clubhouse, not only can you lend an ear to other entrepreneurs’ wisdom by joining live conversations that you would never be able to gain access to otherwise, but you can network and connect to new customers.

In light of increasing app privacy measures, such as the iOS 14.5 update causing small businesses to worry about Facebook and Instagram marketing, Clubhouse can be a safe, powerful, and interactive platform for B2B businesses.

Don’t wait until Clubhouse becomes the new Twitter. Start building your following today.

The post Clubhouse: The Hot New Social Media for Your Business first appeared on MightyCall.

Normal business has come to a standstill, and many shops have been forced to close their doors entirely, sometimes for months at a time. It’s been rough, doubly so if you had just started to get your business off the ground when this hit- or have tried to start it while the pandemic has been ongoing.

But through all this, there’s been a light in the darkness: the holiday season! That crucial period for businesses from the end of November throughout December when retailers and small businesses of all stripes make the big bucks. And there’s good news: Gallup recently reported that Americans are going to spend an average of $852 on Christmas gifts, ever so slightly higher than they did last year- which means spending is going to be effectively undaunted by the pandemic.

But here’s the question: how can YOU take advantage? Because while Americans are going to be spending some solid dough, if they do not hear about your business or your products, they are going to end up chucking it all at the big-box online retailers (read: not you). Traditional advertising campaigns may not work as well as they normally do- or will they?

Here, we figured we’d go through a couple ways you can beat the pandemic and get yourself some of that precious holiday cash.

Go Back to Advertising Basics

You’re a small business owner and folks are stuck in their houses. Some of the only excitement most folks have nowadays is getting the mail. Take advantage of it!

Modern marketing campaigns have mostly centered around the internet. This isn’t a surprise: campaigns through the internet can reach untold numbers of folks, are relatively easy to pull off, and can be instantaneous (new sale for tomorrow? Hundreds can know within an hour). From independent bookstores to presidential campaigns, online has been all the rage. But is there a benefit to be had to going back to the basics? We think so. Don’t us wrong- we are not trying to dismiss the importance of social media, and in fact will go into some social media strategies below.

For all of the press it got recently in the news, the postal service is still going along, and pretty handily at that. Take advantage of it! You’re a small business owner and folks are stuck in their houses. In some places, it’s basically illegal to leave short of walking your dog or for buying groceries. Some of the only excitement most folks have nowadays might literally be getting the mail!

And that’s where you come in. Make fun, catchy flyers (Microsoft Word has some really great and easy templates you can put together in almost no time at all, as do many other word processor programs if you don’t have access to Word itself). Include in some sort of code or coupon for your business (people like fun and catchy flyers, but you know what catches peoples’ eyes the quickest? Sales!). And mail them out! Envelopes are cheap as can be, and stamps aren’t exactly going to cost you an arm and a leg.

Concerned about paying for a ton of stamps? Then take a drive (that’s still legal!) to your local print shop (if you don’t want to print at home), print out a couple hundred copies, and just drop them off yourself in your neighbors’ mailboxes! No worries about hand-to-hand contacts (wear gloves if you feel better about it), you get your information out there, and you get a drive and some air at the same time!

If you only want to mail to a select group, then you should probably…

…Hit up the folks you’ve dealt with before!

What’s your small business equivalent of that movie which always makes you relaxed? It’s the customers you’ve already built up a relationship with, or interacted with at least once.

In times of uncertainty or instability, you fall back on what you know. When you’re feeling tired after a long week at work, you relax with a game you love playing, an album you love hearing, or a movie you’ve watched dozens of times.

Well, business isn’t that different. While risks are always essential for any business to be truly successful, sometimes taking a risk is…well, risky, for lack of a better word. And a pandemic is one of those times; with the holidays being so important, you don’t to blow the chance to recoup any cash you may have lost due to the craziness earlier this year.

So what’s your small business equivalent of that movie which always makes you relaxed (if you’re literally looking for a relaxing movie during the pandemic, we recommend “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but that’s neither here nor there)?

It’s the customers you’ve already built up a relationship with, or even the ones you’ve interacted with at least once (and had positive interactions with). Do you run a business in which you usually see Person X twice a year, maybe in January and June? Well, why not contact them now and see if they’ll want to come in in December instead? Have some regular customers who you haven’t heard from in a bit? Send them your flyers- maybe personally customized.

For those of you who are relatively new to this business (pun very intended), it can sometimes seem daunting to press some of your older clients. You don’t want to seem pushy, you don’t want to come across as desperate? That’s fair. But you know what is a lot worse? Not having enough money to stay afloat. Besides, it’s very possible that your clients are going to be happy you contacted them. Remember: Americans are going to spend as much money as last year, if not more- and that was in one of the best economies in recent years! There is money that is going to be spent, and some of that can go to you- but you have to put in the work of going out and finding it.

Embrace Modernity

Someone is going to go to your business’ Insta, see a single post, and go back to watching Chunk the Groundhog eat cute things in his garden. You have to work to keep folks’ attention.

Now, traditional mail campaigns are pretty useful, as we said above. But look, folks- there’s a reason that social media has taken off the way it has when it came to campaigns, political and advertising alike. The ability to reach huge amounts of people with a couple clicks of a button is too useful to ignore.

But the one issue is, a lot of folks don’t know how to use it. This is understandable- it’s a skill, and some people are better at it than others. Take advantage of some people’s skills. There are all sorts of online one-off classes or consultations you can make with social media managers or experts to get tips and tricks, and they (especially the one-off classes) are not really going to break the bank.

But even without some expert advice, there are still all sorts of ways to advertise your business. For one, take full advantage of the fact that almost all social media is free. Do you have an Instagram account for your business (not a personal one, but a business one)? If not, get one. Have a business Twitter? A Facebook page? Do it all. Don’t slack on that. And actually upkeep it! Don’t create these pages and then have like, one post. Someone is going to go to your business’ Insta, see a single post, and go back to watching Chunk the Groundhog eat cute things in his garden. You have to work to keep folks’ attention.

And in terms of advertising? Post on your personal page. Advertise. Even if it only gets you a couple hundred followers to begin with, that’ll be a base from which to jump.

Now, once it takes off, it can take up a ton of your time. You’ll want to find ways to manage all of your accounts. One way you can do it is if you go through your virtual telephone system. Some systems like MightyCall’s allow you to oversee your social media messages from a central hub, making it easier for you and your employees to respond to what will (hopefully!) be a torrent of interest!

So whether you go with traditional advertising or something new…

…go with something! Do not let the pandemic or the cold get you down. These winter months will be absolutely key for small businesses like yours- don’t waste them staying inside, hoping that clients find you. Pandemics haven’t changed this key facet of business or advertising: clients won’t find you (at least, not always- sometimes you’ll simply get lucky). You’ll have to find them. And be it through snail mail or through social media, uh, mail, you’ll have to take full advantage of your opportunities – of which there are plenty!

So stay safe and stay healthy – but stay hungry.

The post How to Advertise in a Cold, Pandemic-y Holiday Season first appeared on MightyCall.

As business people, however, we also know that our hearts won’t be at peace until we settle critical business tasks abounding this time of year. Tasks like personalized holiday marketing campaigns for our clients.

We know that to grab hold of customer’s attention in the busiest shopping season of the year, holiday marketing should be fresh, surprising, and reflect the values of our brand. Something that makes people stop and go, “Wow, how cool is that!”.

But how do you offer unique experiences to customers without losing peace of mind at a time when balancing business and family is super vital? Moreover, how do you take into account the intricacies of being a SaaS, B2B, or B2C company?

To answer that question, we asked small business owners nationwide in SaaS, B2B, and B2C businesses to share their favorite tried and tested holiday marketing ideas.

Check these out and replace the pains of holiday marketing with the pleasure of giving back the blessings of the season!

Navigate:

• Holiday marketing for SaaS business: Special strokes for special folks
• Holiday marketing for B2B business: Gather everyone round the table
• Holiday marketing for B2B business: ’tis the season to give back

Holiday marketing for SaaS business: Special strokes for special folks

Companies that make their own Software as a Service (SaaS) product have a lot going on at any given time of year. If you’re a SaaS company with a freemium-type business model, then the task of getting users to upgrade from the free version to a paid plan is especially tricky.

What you want to do here isn’t just offer a juicy deal. It’s to offer a juicy deal to the right people at the right time. Olga Mykhoparkina, CMO at Chanty, shares exactly that kind of thinking.

“One of the best holiday marketing methods we’ve seen is to target our free users and offer them a discount to upgrade to a paid plan,” Olga says. ‘We’re a SaaS business and we have pretty solid data that tells us which of our free customers are using our app extensively. We send them out targeted email campaigns and offer them a holiday discount. This year, for example, we’ll be giving 50% OFF the annual Chanty business plan.”

How to do it

To get your SaaS holiday marketing right, step into a regular software user’s shoes for a moment.

So many of us have downloaded free SaaS tools that we’ve used several times this past year, at best. What happens when we get a newsletter from one of those companies with a good upgrade deal? For most of us, nothing. We just ignore it.

Now, imagine you’re a customer that uses the free version of the software consistently. You love the service and have been thinking of getting those extra services they offer but were kind of waiting for the right moment. And that’s when the 50% off coupon lands in your inbox.

Will you grab a deal like that? I bet you will.

If you’re a SaaS company that offers a free starter deal, use analytics to find customers that use your free product version most often. It’s those user categories that you’ll want to target with holiday marketing deals. For best results, personalize marketing offers specifically to the age groups and industries of those users.

SaaS companies that don’t offer free products can use the same idea to target their most active ‘basic/starter’ plan customers to invite them to upgrade.

Holiday marketing for B2B business: Gather everyone round the table

As a B2B company, your clients are the busiest kinds of people out there. In contrast to regular consumers, they’re currently preoccupied with the same things you are: year-end business reports, holiday marketing ideas, and 2020 business strategies. They’ve got as little time as you do (and perhaps less) to be convinced to buy.

All this means that to grab hold of client attention, a B2B company has to do some outstanding holiday marketing. How exactly do you go about that? Catherine Cohen of Cohen Coaching may just know the answer.

“[As a B2B company] the way we market, especially around the holidays, is very different than B to C businesses,” Catherine shares. “The majority of our marketing this time of year is social media in the form of posts and our podcast, Funnels & Follow Up. But the best marketing this time of year for our business is picking up the phone and making calls.”

With a B2B company, 5 minutes of one-on-one conversation means the guaranteed 5 minutes of their time devoted to you. Let’s face it: getting those exclusive 5 minutes of attention via social media or e-mail marketing would be practically impossible.

“By calling prospects and clients individually, we can zero in on the pain that business is having around the holidays and get them into a coaching package that is right for them,” Catherine adds. “More than any advertising or marketing, having conversations is the BEST way to market past the excuses of the holiday season.”

How to do it

What puts B2B marketing apart is that you market to help, not convince.

When another business is interested in your services, it means they have a specific challenge to be solved.  In order to understand that challenge, you have to forge an honest conversation with your clients.

By striking up phone conversations with B2B clients, you gain insights into their daily challenges and the kinds of products/services that can help them. This makes it easier to suggest this or that feature that clients may not know about.

Here are more questions on how communication impacts your holiday marketing:

• Am I calling to make a sale or understand how my product/service can help the client?
• Should I be recording the call to remember important information?
• Do I keep track of my existing clients with a built-in mobile CRM system?
• Are my voice greetings and auto-attendant messages all set for the holiday season so clients have the pleasure of interacting with my business?
• Should I use WhatsApp Business or other business messengers for holiday marketing?

An incredibly important part of your holiday marketing, a phone conversation will help people on both ends of the line save time. To make sure that your business saves money as well, discover the user-friendly virtual phone system for small business that protects your privacy and saves up to 60% on business communications costs. Learn more about MightyCall VoIP.

Holiday marketing for B2C business: ’tis the season to give back

2019-20 consumers are looking for something special to make them buy. Something more than another coupon or promo. As Cone Communications puts it in their research about corporate social responsibility, “Companies must now share not only what they stand for, but what they stand up for.”

Craig Blume, Managing partner at The Baltimore Biker Trading Company LLC, is focusing on raising money with his products this holiday season as a way to both grow his startup and raise funds for a special cause.

“We are a new entrepreneurial start-up company,” Craig shares. “We partnered with a local business man (Steve O’Donnell) and a large National Organization (the CMTA) to create the $1 Million Plane Survivor CMT Challenge – A Million Reasons to Believe.”

At first glance, Craig’s holiday marketing is as simple as selling a T-shirt. But through partnering up with a national organization like the CMTA (Charcot Marie-Tooth Disease Association), the whole country can now learn about the business. This is something that no email marketing or holiday sales campaign could’ve accomplished on its own, especially for a startup.

“We are donating $5.00 for every Plane Survivor CMT T-shirt sold to achieve the $1 Million challenge,” Craig says. “There are 2.8 million people affected with CMT [Charcot Marie-Tooth Disease, a neurological disease] in the world. We want the world to know about [it] and we want to help pay for the research. We will all celebrate together in a monumental way when the cure is discovered.”

How to do it

Showing your customers that you care is a great way to associate the name of your brand with a worthy cause and create a bond of trust with consumers that goes beyond marketing. Both local businesses and online ones can partner up with organizations on a community or national level.

The 2017 Cone Communications CSR Study gives food for thought on what holiday marketing for socially responsible businesses should look like.

Here are some of the CSR study’s top findings:

• Four out of five U.S. consumers expect businesses to continue improving their CSR (corporate social responsibility) efforts.
• Millennials are your company’s best organic marketers.
• 71% of millennials want businesses to take charge of leading environmental and social change.
• 92% of consumers have a more positive image of the company that supports a social or environmental cause.
• Racial equality, women’s rights, immigration, and climate change are among the top issues U.S. consumers want companies to address.

When choosing a charity to support, check that the cause suits your voice and relates to your audience demographics. Talk to your team and/or your clients to learn about the problems they care for and ones they relate to. Finally, browse legitimate charities on websites like Give.org to find something that ‘clicks’ with your business and customers.

For additional exposure of your charity and brand, Liz Jeneault, entrepreneur and the vice president of marketing for Faveable, suggests hosting giveaways through social media influencers. “Social media giveaways are a great holiday marketing tool to use,” Liz says. “It helps increase your social media following and also introduces you to new potential customers. Plus, having an influencer recommend your product or business brings legitimacy to your business.”

Final word

With everything else you have to do this season, holiday marketing may look like yet another challenge to solve. But with the right mindset and the right tools, everything changes. This holiday season, your holiday marketing can take off and connect you with new people and opportunities you never thought possible!

To help you connect with customers in the most friendly and simple way, take a look at MightyCall’s VoIP business phone system, now with a special limited-time offer.

The post Personalized Holiday Marketing Ideas for SaaS, B2B, and B2C Business first appeared on MightyCall.

Here are some tips for small businesses to capitalize on those good feelings and make their July 4^th memorable.

Look patriotic ??

Whether you have a physical store or an online store, you should deck everything you can out in red, white, and blue, and even better if it’s a stars and stripes design. Have pop-ups and send promo emails that are stylized and if possible, interactive. (After all, everyone does love fireworks.)

The idea here isn’t to go over the top or be obnoxious, but just to get visitors and customers in the right mindset to capitalize on your deals. This shouldn’t last all summer either, as most Independence Day offers last a week, at most, running from the final few days of June through the holiday itself.

Bring out the contests ?

Regardless of if your business is run online or in a physical store, you should be using social media (as usual) to talk with your customers and customer base as much as possible.

For Independence Day, up the stakes by having competitions and contests with your followers. See who can eat the most hotdogs or who wears the stars and stripes best or whose BBQ looks best. Cater the specifics to your target audience, but put some free goodies on the line and have fun with it.

Spend time at community events ?

Especially if you have a storefront, small businesses should be getting out there and meeting people face-to-face at community events. Pool parties, picnics, parades—you name it and most communities will commemorate America’s birthday somehow.

Your job as a small business is to show up and help give people another reason to be happy. Free samples, sponsorships and just being visible and interactive can go a long way toward making a great impression on your local community.

Have a massive sale ?️

While the holiday itself is great incentive for people to buy things, you should grease the wheels by giving them all the more reason to spend: discounts and other perks like free delivery or money-back guarantees.

The year doesn’t have that many clear opportunities to have large-scale sales, and with Independence Day being arguably the second biggest holiday of the year in America, it’s a great chance to pick up slow summer business.

If you sell a service, show how it can enhance the holiday’s parties and get-togethers! If you sell a product, demonstrate how people can’t rightfully call themselves a good American without having it! With discounted prices people will be more willing to take a chance on things if you give them the slightest reason why it’ll be worth it.

Give back to America’s finest ?️

No matter what state you’re from or what your politics are, every American can agree that our troops are all too often underappreciated. Veterans simply do not get the respect and treatment they deserve.

With that being said, Independence Day is a perfect time to give back to get. Let visitors know that a percentage (this depends on your margins, but shouldn’t be less than 5%) of every purchase will be donated to helping Veterans. That will be enough to compel a good amount of on-the-fence shoppers. Show your social awareness and value to the community and your business will look all the more mature and professional for it.

The post Independence Day Marketing Tips first appeared on MightyCall.

To avoid this, you need a hands-on approach. Make no mistake: it’s not about finding magic sales and marketing tools. As helpful as these can be, your priority is an insider’s (not a generic) view of the fundamentals – an augmented reality you need to constantly exist in to make customers happy.

Whatever industry your business is a part of, here’s a simple strategy to turn classic “customer experience” theories into an updated practical approach sure to impress your clients.

Theory: Do what you say you do

KPMG studies show that customers are merciless at penalizing businesses that underdeliver. If you’re not fulfilling what’s expected of you in customer service or your products don’t match customer expectation, they aren’t going to stick around. Figures show that 89% of customers start doing business with a competitor after a poor experience.

You may think that you’ll simply find new customers to replace the old ones, but the same stats show that the expenses of bringing in a new customer are up to 10x greater when compared to retaining a current one.

Practice: Overdeliver whenever possible

Overdelivering is just another word for anticipating customer needs. While building a solid foundation implies doing your job well (and is the first step to boosting the customer experience), building up the structure of your business means outperforming your competitors.

Unfortunately, too many business owners stop at the initial “foundation” stage and thus never get past the competition. Their customers are always merely “content” with the product or service. However, content customers are unreliable and great customer experience is measured by the number of enthusiastic ones.

• Outperform your own ads:
  whatever your customers read about your product or service, it’s the real thing that has to make them say “wow”.

Take a piece of paper and start noting down 10 new features that would positively surprise you about your own product. Then, pick out the top 3 and bring them to life.

Theory:  Encourage customer feedback to showcase positive reviews

Encouraging customer feedback is a really important part of business growth. Positive customer feedback can be great for featuring on your website to show the real-life experiences behind your product. Moreover, it’s a terrific motivation for your team to continue working well. But if you always focus on the good stuff, you’ll never grow enough to fix your company’s weaknesses.

Practice: Learn from unhappy customers and showcase your improvements

As Bill Gates famously said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

Though you will not want to have that sort of customer feedback pinned to your testimonials page, you must understand that learning from relevant negative customer feedback and acting on it is an art in itself. If you need any further incentive, just think about it: boosting customer retention rates by just 5% will give you a 25% – 95% profits boost!

• Send out “improvements” newsletters:
  Understandably, not every discontent customer will take the time to give customer feedback on the exact thing they disliked. But even if they never say a word to you, many might reconsider their decision if they receive a friendly newsletter with your latest product/customer service improvements. Not sure how to do this? Check out this terrific example.
  
• Don’t be a friend just in happy times:
  Send a follow-up email to customers who’ve been away from you for a while. Don’t try to convince – just show them your updated product(s) and customer service.
• Stay polite:
  Be caring and make it a habit of sending thank-you letters to clients. But even if something goes wrong, don’t panic: 63% of customers say a negative experience wouldn’t stop them from returning if they receive an apology from the company.

Theory: Love your product and customers will love it in return

This one is a classic and sounds simple enough. Love what you do, and others will follow. But love is difficult enough in life – what is it supposed to mean in business? Does it entail overlooking the flaws of your beloved product and always seeing the bright side? Or is it more of a domineering relationship which will always leave your product a victim of your own discontent? Well, none of that, really. When you love something, you are proud of it and want to show it from as many sides as possible.

Practice: Surprise customers with innovative ways to use your product

It’s hard to imagine a stronger leader at this than IKEA. Think of the countless ways they showcase a single product, making it accessible to all styles, budgets, and age categories. That’s because we’re much more likely to buy when impressed by versatility. This means an investment is worthwhile and may resonate even with skeptics.

Just imagine how much you’ll boost customer experience and pleasantly “wow” clients when they discover a dozen unexpected, creative ways to use your product!

• Note 10 innovative ways your product can be used:
  perhaps it’s a surprising way to use the product, a whole new setting for it, or a way both kids and adults can have fun with it.

Even if your “product” is real estate, you can show clients many bright ideas they’ll love implementing in the house of their dreams.

Theory: Reach far and wide to get customers involved with your product

The theory still works for businesses that offer general services and products. But even so, by applying a one-for-all sales strategy, you risk putting all your customers in the same basket and ignoring demographics and personal preferences. Meanwhile, customers today want to stand out and have their individuality recognized more than ever before. That’s why even major brands consider personalization a key factor in their marketing campaigns.

Practice: Speak the language of your target audience

Is your product a potential hit with families, single moms, or maybe…hardcore bikers? If so, just think how much you’ll miss out on if using a generic sales approach. To start performing your best, you need to not only understand your target audience but put yourself in their shoes.

Do your products apply to several consumer categories? Great! Do several targeted marketing campaigns and research the data for each. You’ll discover the several most loyal follower categories which you can start catering to specifically.

• Find your voice:
  On your website, social networks, and in newsletters, try talking about your product using language your target audience can relate to. Be a bit bolder, more humorous, or speak up about real-life issues your customers may be facing.

The bottom line: focus on the human, personal side of your business, and you’ll naturally ace the art of customer experience.

Theory: Quality speaks for itself

Quality is the heart of any business, but keep in mind that lasting customer experience impressions start from the very first second someone interacts with your business. No matter how much quality work you (or your product) are willing to show later, you can’t afford to lose that very first “wow” moment with your customer. This means you must learn to concentrate on quality without letting appearances slack.

Practice: Don’t ignore the wrap, even with the best contents

We’re all children at heart. We love being surprised with fancy (or at least smart) packaging instead of something wrapped in cardboard and duct tape. This is especially (and literally) true of niche-market products so popular with internet shoppers. But this also matters for customer relationships.

• For physical products: (especially: custom-made, hand-made, etc.)
  Always have special branded packaging to ship your products in. If you need inspiration, just look at how a company can ship something as standard as light bulbs. Now imagine your own grin while opening that wrap and try to emulate it for your customers.

• For everything else:
  The package may not be physical, but it’s still there, in that first impression customers have when interacting with you and the service you’re offering them. Often that will be through your website.

Theory: Engage clients with multimedia features

Everyone loves a business website with lots of interactive information. But have you ever visited a site with a noisy video that starts playing whenever you visit the home page and sends the visitor on an express quest to the mute button? Or a page that loads so slowly you’ll never get to appreciate all its terrific visuals? Or a site that’s fine on desktop but can’t load properly on mobile devices? In the age of minimalism, make sure you keep all the tech features on your website working towards the common goal.

Practice: Know how to use digital transformation to your advantage

There are lots of ways you can improve the customer experience without overwhelming clients with a never-ending advertising campaign. For example, the same little video about your business can perform just the opposite job, with just one simple trick: put it on mute by default, so clients who aren’t interested won’t be bothered while others will be intrigued enough to hit the unmute button.

What other online features can guide clients through your website instead of scaring them away? Here are a few things.

Provide diverse communication options:

• Over a third of online customers expect to get help within 5 minutes. But the way each client contacts you will be different: from calling a toll-free number, to scheduling a callback via a web widget to messaging. Here’s the good news: all of these features and more are available in every MightyCall plan. Best of all, if your business goes from 2 employees to 2,000, you’ll still be completely covered by our powerful virtual phone system.
• Stay minimalist:
  Minimalist design gives users a sense of transparent professionalism. Its popularity makes complete sense. According to the B2B Web Usability Report, the top info customers are looking for on a vendor homepage is: “products and services”, “contact information”, and the “about us” section. If you’re wondering, “pricing” was ranked last.
• Optimize mobile UX:
  If you haven’t updated your mobile UX in a while, your general customer experience may be greatly suffering. Companies that focused on the mobile user experience typically notice up to a 64% sales increase.

After all’s been said and done, you must understand that the process of delivering the best customer experience is a constant battle to improve yourself, your brand, and your employees.

When you invest in making life easier for your customers, they won’t fail to appreciate your efforts and reward them with loyalty, and that’s sure to not only transform your business, but gift you with plenty of memorable moments in return!

The post How to Wow Your Customers: From Theory to Practice first appeared on MightyCall.

The Fourth of July is around the corner, so we’re parading a bunch of promotional ideas to help you make the most out of our nation’s birthday. Bunting, balloons and branding — you should be trumpeting your business and product offerings until you’re red, white and blue in the face!

Summer starts off strong with a string of holidays. Memorial Day is followed by Father’s Day, and then comes Independence Day.

This is of course a good time for small businesses, but with more holidays comes more sales- and more competition. Entrepreneurs need to invent more and more in promotional activities in order to grab clients’ attention. Repeating the same marketing activities again and again is not the way to go.

Most advertising activities are typical for any holiday: timely reminders to clients about your selection and offers, clients’ social media contests, tangible promo gifts, hosting events, etc. Don’t balk at these tried-and-true ideas, but keep some of these additional tips in mind to help vary your summer marketing campaign.

Decorative giveaways

It’s more likely than not that you won’t sell all of your holiday decorations after the festivities. A few days before the holiday, try making a decorative giveaway promo. Flags, bunting and garlands of patriotic colors will cost you not much more than a pittance. Add some small swag with your logo (pens, cups, greeting cards) and your clients will start swarming!

By the way, this is an efficient way for an online business and those who sell your services to remind about your company and advertise yourself. The louder and brighter your campaign, the more customers will come. Buzzy marketing spreads fast among neighbors.

Join the parade

The Independence Day parade is usually the main part of any July 4^th in towns and cities across America. It reminds parade watchers of the history and real meaning of the day. Ask to the city’s authorities to find out if it’s possible to participate in the event or become a sponsor.

In many cities, the parade’s entry fee is low or free. It is an excellent opportunity to stand out. Create a wheeled float that will present your business and honor the holiday. The logo should fit the theme of the day. And participating in a social-patriotic ceremony engenders goodwill towards your business.

Talk to customers

Why not be sociable today? Grab a camera, get amongst the crowd. Prepare some fun questions and choose prospective clients for a short interview. Everyone wants their moment of glory. Pick questions that both point out your businesses positives but yet also seem, well, fun!

Be ready to hand out business cards with your website, where you’ll later post a highlights video of the holiday celebration. The “stars” are sure to visit your internet page.

Kite contest

The holiday street party continues all day long! Go to your friends/fellow business owners with an idea for a kite festival. Holidays are often a chance to collaborate with rivals for win-win results. Applying to marketing designers for the kites’ appearance is also a worthwhile investment. It should be conspicuous, appealing and deliver the essence of your business. USA Promo Items or Promotional Product Inc. are just two of companies that are ready to implement your promo ideas on kites (as well as on hundreds of other items.) Company logos and mottos will sail in the sky, attracting walkers to the fest location. Be ready to sell small kites with your business’ logo for a token fee to all interested.

Fair and fireworks

The spectacular finale of the Fourth of July is always fireworks. In many cases, before watching fireworks viewers will spend the evening at a nearby fair. Families and friends come together to enjoy the festival. Book your place as a fair participant- or even host! Get your staff to wear themed costumes, hats and makeup to attract kids’ attention. If you are children-oriented, you’re in the box seat.

It’s a good idea to know how to charm parents and convince them to buy knick-knacks and snacks. So prepare a kids’ zone and pitch balloons, candy and snacks for the smaller guests. Check out favorite confectionery vendors like Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins; they usually have holiday offers in their menus. But don’t forget the adults: treat them with small classics like barbecues, burgers and frankfurters. They’ll stay longer and remember your atmosphere and products.

No matter what product or service you offer, you won’t lose by selling or giving away some small fireworks on the Fourth of July (though make sure you know your state laws regarding firework sales!).

Partial summer sale

It may sound sad, but the first month of summer is almost gone. It’s time to get rid of some of your summer-only items. Put on sale products that most likely won’t be in fashion anytime soon. At least you’ll get some return instead of nothing.

By the way, the word “Sale” is sort of like magic. Spread information that a holiday discount is being offered, and watch client traffic increase.

Now that you’re inspired to launch a Fourth of July marketing campaign- get to it!

The post Marketing Ideas for July 4 first appeared on MightyCall.

Why are we here at MightyCall doing this?

Well, to be entirely honest, VoIP phone services, including our own, have become increasingly popular for use as a means to scam others. We’re always on the lookout for people who may be using the service to scam others, and we’re quick to shut down any accounts with unusual activity—but it does take time and patterns for us to catch scammers.

The fact that maybe a dozen people use MightyCall malignantly doesn’t affect 99.9% of our users, but the very real scams that happen to millions of Americans need to be combated.

Here’s a digestible breakdown of the Who, What, Where, and How of some of the scams currently floating around. I apologize in advance if this is overwhelming.

(Also, an obligatory note—falling for any kind of fraud does not mean someone is stupid, as many scams originate from people whose job it is to solely think up fraudulent mechanisms. This episode of the podcast Reply All is wonderful at illustrating this point, and it’s a short listen at about a 22-minute runtime sans ads.)

Where are the scammers from?

This is the hardest question to answer when analyzing fraud. Contrary to popular belief, there are scammers all over the world, and our homegrown American scammers often wreak the most havoc.

Pindrop Labs, a technological company that specializes in phone security, estimated that 64% of fraudulent calls originate in a foreign country after reviewing their database. Since only 6.6% of legitimate calls are international, it should be a huge red flag when you get an unknown international call. If you do not know people living abroad and you receive a call from another country, be wary and quick to hang up the phone.

Email spam is even more prevalent than phone scams—it accounts for 45% of all email, with approximately 14.5 billion spam emails sent daily. While many email scams are ridiculous—Nigerian princes seeking help and terminally-ill billionaires trying to leave you their inheritance—some are quite advanced, with 3 out of 4 companies succumbing to a phishing scam in 2016.

What’s worse about email scams is that their origin isn’t important. You may note that a lot of spam has terrible grammar and guess that it’s because it’s from Nigeria or somewhere, but that isn’t always true. Even American-based scammers intentionally write like an underachieving 3^rd grader to intentionally target the most gullible people.

Who do scammers target?

Everyone deals with spam in one way or another, but fraud works best on three different groups: Companies, the elderly, and (surprise!) Millennials.

Companies are vulnerable (as seen in the stat above) due to the sheer number of people involved. All it takes is one person to not recognize their colleague’s normal email address has been tweaked slightly (for example, from Johnsmith@gmail.com to johnsnith@gmail.com) to share company documents that may lead to further targeting.

The elderly, who you would guess are the most vulnerable, often are. Older people are more likely to pick up the phone, and being less inclined with technology, may not know what to flag in a suspicious email or call.

(If you have a loved one over the age of 60, we strongly recommend watching their finances for anything unusual and talking to them about the most common scam operations. This is a situation where the saying, “With age comes wisdom” doesn’t apply.)

Last year however, it was actually Millennials who reported being scammed most often. While people in their 20s and early 30s lost less money than seniors per scam, they fell for “quick cash” and social media scams at alarming rates. This is likely due to a couple things: an unwavering belief that anything you see on social media must be true (we have recently learned and been reckoning with the truth of that matter) and the irrational confidence that they are too smart to fall for a scam.

For the young people out there, know that it’s better to be safe than sorry—take a few seconds to ask yourself if something is too good to be true before sending money anywhere.

What scams are common?

This is a good consolidation of the most common scams out there now: https://www.maketecheasier.com/internet-scams-to-avoid/.

Important disclaimer: fraudsters are constantly changing things up, and programs and “robots” they create to aid them are only growing more and more advanced. Simply knowing what have been common scams does not protect you from any scams that may pop up in the future.

In addition to the scams listed in the link above, these are the 4 phone scams that we here at MightyCall have been tracking over the past few months:

1. Someone calls you pretending to be from the IRS, saying that you owe money after incorrectly filing your taxes (or something along those lines)
2. An email blast is sent out to customers of a particular company (in our case, it was AT&T customers targeted), informing them of a new special offer. Upon inquiry, the victim would be asked to buy and send the code for a $250 Amazon giftcard to pay for the upgraded offer; the scammers justified buying a giftcard by saying it was a joint Amazon and AT&T campaign.
3. Scammers, claiming to be from your electric company, will call people with outstanding debt and threaten to “shut off” their electricity if they don’t send payment immediately.
4. Scammers posing as IT specialists will call offering software (normally antivirus software). During the remote installation of said software, they will either hold your computer hostage until you pay for the software or will steal your personal information for later use. It’s typical for these scammers to claim to be Microsoft employees.

What else do I need to know for my own protection?

IIn case you didn’t hear about the Equifax data breach that occurred in 2017, you should know that even your credit card information could be at risk. Equifax, which is one of the country’s three credit reporting agencies and has access to most Americans’ personal information, was hacked last year; in the hack, the sensitive information—such as addresses, social security numbers, and in some cases credit card info—of about 143 million Americans was compromised.

We’re not trying to scare you, but your personal information could very well be floating out there in cyberspace, and if it is, you are a more likely target of both identity theft and phishing.

How can I protect myself?

It goes without saying, but always double-check anything you deem strange; even if you merely get a tiny tinge in your gut, take the time to investigate.

One dead giveaway of a scam is how you are asked to pay. If you’re being asked to send a wire transfer, to buy a giftcard, or to send money through a service like paypal, it’s 100% a scam. The government and any official companies will never, ever ask you to pay through any of those methods.

Another important thing not to overlook: THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS INSTITUTIONS DON’T CALL OR EMAIL YOU! (That’s what the Postal Service is literally for nowadays.)

In the strange occurrence that they would, it wouldn’t be about money. The same goes for big companies like Microsoft or local utility companies—they never call.

If Microsoft has new software, there’ll be a popup on your computer or something to let you know; if you’re behind on your bills, you’ll get multiple warnings mailed to you before one day the water/gas/electricity/etc. is suddenly shut off.

If someone contacts you posing as a member of government or any company, you should find the appropriate phone number or email address of the government department or company and ask them if they contacted you. After they tell you they haven’t, report the scammer to the FTC immediately.

Another bit of advice guaranteed to never fail you—ask friends and others what they think about any sketchy calls or emails you get or things you see online.

Why have scammers been using VoIP providers?

They use it because it’s cheap and easy to sign up, so they can run a scam, get paid, and cancel without leaving themselves open to getting caught.

Scammers need a legitimate phone number to initiate phone scams, so they abuse the ease of access VoIP providers offer.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to stop them when they sign up because they typically use stolen credit cards—which means that the payment goes through without a snag and we have no reason to initially be suspicious.

That’s not to say that we’re powerless to stop them though—we find and shut down over 80% of scammers in the first 2 business days. That’s good, but we want to be better.

We already block suspicious IP addresses, but analyzing calling activity is the best way to determine who’s abusing the system. To do that, we’re making strides toward an hourly system that comprehensively monitors phone usage to catch scammers as quickly as possible.

To clarify, we are not listening to your phone calls NSA-style, but we look at the number of minutes used and calls made within certain windows, and irregularly high amounts immediately tip us off and draw investigation to see if the business is legitimate.

How worried should I be?

Don’t be worried—be careful.

Here are some additional links with great information about scams; I’m also including two youtube clips from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that cover these topics because they do a better job of providing entertaining education about them than anything else I’ve seen.

• https://www.wellsfargo.com/privacy-security/fraud/protect/
• https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/scam-alerts
• https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0060-10-things-you-can-do-avoid-fraud

The post The Scamguard: Helping you Protect yourself against Fraud first appeared on MightyCall.

As we grow up and accumulate enough of these disappointments, a jaded sense of hesitation materializes to loom over nearly every financial decision we make.

And that’s ok. Most of us need that impulse control to prevent us from spending way more than we’re capable of.

Repeatedly buying chew toys for your dog even though they’re destroyed within 48 hours? Hold back on that one.

Splurging on fast food at 1 in the morning because you’re hungry? Try a cheaper alternative.

Buying a super specific piece of workout equipment that you probably won’t use? Consider joining a gym instead. Every questionable purchase we make adds up, thickening our outer skin.

Some things that you buy will disappoint you—it’s inevitable. Selling anything requires the deconstruction of that fear of being disappointed in a product or service. Some businesses and people can demolish that wall in a second, with an image or a slogan; others take longer, having to remove one brick at a time until the obstacles are gone. But no matter what product someone looks at, that first look will be tinged with suspicion and doubt. Why are these promises any different from the others that have let me down in the past?

Regardless of how long it takes, the only way to help people get to where they need to be is with trust.

As a general estimate, more than 95% of people won’t be ready to buy anything on the first go-around (link later). Some will never buy anything—you need to accept these things without getting discouraged.

Here are the three most important factors to breaking down people’s fear of disappointment.

1. Always be honest:

If customers catch you in a lie, the relationship is ruined forever. In business, there are multiple factors here as well; you need to represent your product genuinely, you need to only make promises you know you can keep, and you need to have the foresight to lead people in the right direction if they don’t actually need your product.

There is no point in misrepresenting your product—people will figure things out quickly and you’ll be left with angry people (rightfully) demanding answers.

If you promise your product/service can do something, you need to ensure that it does.

Those factors are just on the sales side—for customer service, honesty counts too. Most people will be understanding that we’re all just doing our best to get by. If there’s a problem, explain why; don’t make excuses. Customers deserve to know the truth when it affects them.

2. Know that the customer is king:

Customer service will often be the sole decider in which customers you keep and which you lose. To make sure you’re providing the best customer service possible, you need to be both fast and helpful.

You have competition out there, likely a considerable amount, so if you take too long to respond to a call, comment, tweet, etc., that customer will go somewhere that will help them quickly. Failing to be accessible makes you look unorganized.

Helping out customers should bring them value. It shouldn’t matter when they contact you either. That means your company needs a brand and a culture that every employee buys into, so each one delivers consistently great customer experiences.

Your customers are how you put food on your plate, so treat them like it.

3. Know yourself and your product:

The connection your business has to your target market, and the world itself, stems from how realized your company is. This means having a firm grasp on its capabilities, beliefs, and image.

The promises and claims you make, the way you train your staff, the changes you make to your product, all of that is the result of introspection. It’s ok to admit that your company can’t do something, or that you need to adjust your product, or that you won’t fulfill a customer request on moral grounds (white supremacy is not ok!).

The confidence that comes from that knowledge will free you from the need to simple appease customers. Your customer service should revolve entirely around your company’s image, not some stock image of what customer service should look like.

Basics like professionalism and respect extend to any sphere, but the tone, personality, and specifics of how you interact with customers should be cultivated from the knowledge you have about yourself and your business. Otherwise you’re just mimicking a more successful company and hoping things work out.

You have to show people why they’ll never think twice about your product or service. It may take time, but building trust with a customer is the best thing you can do.

Always remember that, even when they don’t buy anything.

The post Customers are afraid of buying things (and that’s ok) first appeared on MightyCall.